Festivalblog Sonntag

Festivalblog Sunday, May 11, 2025

The Filmmuseum Potsdam is showing the matinée HERR ZWILLING UND FRAU ZUCKERMANN REVISITED at 11:00 am. Director Volker Koepp and screenplay co-writer Barbara Frankenstein will talk about the making of their award-winning documentary HERR ZWILLING UND FRAU ZUCKERMANN. The focus is on the Jewish history of Czernowitz - once a cultural center in Bukovina - as well as the experiences of Jewish people in post-Soviet Ukraine in the 1990s. The discussion will also focus on the relevance of the film today, especially against the backdrop of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The event will be held in German and admission is free.

In the afternoon, at 15:30 in Filmkunst 66 Saal 1 in Berlin, Amanda Kinsey's documentary JEWS OF THE WILD WEST will take the audience on a journey of discovery into the history of Jewish migration to the American West. The film sheds light on the lives of personalities such as Levi Strauss and lesser-known Jewish immigrants who contributed to the pioneering work in the “Wild West” in search of safety and freedom. The film will be shown in its original version with German subtitles (OmdU), supplemented by the supporting film THE LAST COWBOY IN SALFORD.

Also in the afternoon, at 15:30 at the Filmmuseum Potsdam, the documentary THE COMMUNITY by Alex Osmolovsky will be shown. The film examines how Jewish life in today's Ukraine is shaped under the conditions of war, fear and political appropriation. This will be followed by a Q&A with Viktor Portel, the director of the supporting film BETWEEN THE DITCHES AND RAMPARTS. Both films will be shown with German and English subtitles (Omd+eU).

To round off the day - and the festival - the Bundesplatz-Kino will be showing the feature film DIE VERLIEBTEN in its original version with English subtitles (OmeU) at 18:00. In a mixture of love story and historical search for clues, two Germans meet in Montenegro: Katharina, a TV journalist on a family trip, and Peter, who is researching his private past in the former Yugoslavia. Director Jeanine Meerapfel, member of the JFBB feature film jury, will be on site for a film discussion.

Tickets cost 10 EUR, concessions 8 EUR, available via jfbb.info and at the venues. For culinary accompaniment, take a look at berlin-judentum.de/koscher.